Estonian sculptor Mati Karmin has been creating art for over 25 years, but his marine mine furniture and decor are perhaps his most breathtaking work to date, and indeed some of the most unique pieces you'll ever take out a second mortgage on your house to buy.

A deep-sea mining exhibition on Naissaar Island in the Gulf of Finland provides the setting for Karmin's Soviet-era stories brought to life. In 1942, Russia created an enormous, galvanic, AGSB-type mine in its secret military facilities on Naissar. The mines were equipped with a "Blok" device and two contact electro-magnetic antennas, and created to combat submarines. Original mine capsules measured 34.5 inches in diameter, and weighed 2,513 pounds. Their explosive charge was 529 pounds. The Russkie production lot could have mined the entire Gulf of Finland in a matter of hours.

When the Soviets prepared to depart the area in the early 1990s, they burned the explosives out of the remaining operable mines, and then, in true pouty-child form, stomped off without cleaning up the fat wad of remnant empty cases. Strewn about the island to kill whatever natural habitat still struggled for life, many of the leftovers were taken to the mainland and used as scrap metal. Some were left in a field for tourists to gawk at. And the rest of the mines were hauled away by Mati Karmin for transformation into tangible, functional pieces of history, and beautifully rugged pieces of art.

Check out Karmin's full line of marine mine furniture, lighting, decor, and toilets here.